Don't Let Other People's Opinions Dictate Your Life & Business | Business Bootcamp

Hey everyone, this is Mike Andes and you're listening to the Business Bootcamp podcast. Today we're going to be talking about something I feel is absolutely super important to be talking about something I don't talk about enough. Something I have really begin to realize is an issue or a factor, especially with young entrepreneurs, but for a lot of small business owners in general, and that is making business decisions based upon O opo. But before we get into OPO and what that stands for, I want to say a big thank you, today's sponsor, which is Gusto. Gusto is a platform that you can use for your employees so that they can see transparently their payroll, their taxes being deducted, benefits, workers compensation, all the things that go into paying your people. It makes it super easy for you and it makes it very, very simple for your employees to have a very easy portal to, to see their benefits and see their withdrawals and see all their money. This is the compensation is a big part of working at a job. And so being transparent with that and making that accessible and easy for your employees is absolutely a massive plus. For the several dollars you pay every single month for your employees on Gusto, it's absolutely worth it. It's great customer service when you have issues, so I highly recommend you use it. And great for payroll. It'll by far and away put out outperform, QuickBooks, Payroll and the other services that we've tried. So try it out today. Go to gusto.combootcamp and try out for 90 days as part of the listenership for the podcast. Now, today I'm going to be talking about opo. What is opo? It's other people's opinion. And in my experience and what I have seen, in my small amount of experience with, with the podcast and seeing thousands and thousands of people asking questions, this is many times the one thing that I feel is leads to the downfall of many small business owners, young and old alike, but especially young entrepreneurs, and that is they make business decisions based upon other people's opinion. Instead of looking at what the business is needing, instead of looking at market analysis or the numbers or what their customers are saying, they will make business decisions based upon other people's opinions. Alright? And I feel like a lot of times in our culture we're constantly comparing ourselves to other people and so because of that, we start making business decisions based upon what the lease next door to our business. So you might be running a sub shop and you base your decisions based on, based upon the opinions of the leasee next door. The renter, the other business owner next door that runs a pizza shop or runs a clothing shop. And you begin to try to compare yourself. And you begin to think, okay, what are they gonna think about me? What's their opinion going to be about when I put a big banner out next to the road? You begin to think about the other opinions of your family, your spouse, the local community, your friends, the people you play golf with. You can begin to think about other people's opinion, and you base your business decision based upon that instead of actually what is correct and right for the business to do. When we talk about other people's opinions.

Some people really worry about what are the opinions of what people are going to think about my marketing methods. And so, for example, at the conference I just held for landscapers a couple weeks ago, one of the people coming at the conference said they talked to one of my local competitors, and my local competitor said that my marketing for my landscaping business was aggressive. And in my mind, I was like, that's fantastic. That's exactly what I want to hear from my competitor. But on the other hand, a lot of small business owners, because of their competitors, will not go out on a limb, will not try a new marketing method, will not try a new way of hiring or guerrilla marketing, because they're afraid of what other people are thinking. Other people's opinion locks them into the box of normalcy and average. And they fear to step outside of circle. They fear to step outside their comfort zone. They fear to step outside of industry norms, quote, unquote. They fear to step outside of what their competitors are doing in terms of hiring practices, in terms of marketing, in terms of brand awareness and Facebook advertising, and going out and figuring out digital marketing and figuring out crazy ways of marketing, guerilla marketing, and literally are afraid to go put a massive sign out next to the road because what are people going to think? Guess what? Your business does not care about the opinions of other people. Your bills are not paid by other people. The opinions of other people are cheap, they change often, and they will not allow you to succeed. They are going to keep you from making risks, taking challenges, and overcoming the things within your business that actually need your attention and need your input and need your time and energy, and yet you're focusing on the opinions of other people. OPO will kill a small business. The reason for that is because the business owner cares so much about OPO other people's opinion that they'll go out and buy a Mercedes Benz and pay 60, $70,000. Why? Because they feel that other people's opinions of them will increase. And the image that they're comparative to the comparisons that everyone's drawing, somehow that will be inflated and thereby that 60,000 or $70,000 that could have been spent on marketing or could have been spent on hiring another office manager, those dollars are spent on basically trying to equate with everyone's expectations and comparisons and thereby the business is affected. And so some of you have already said, and maybe you've already clicked off, not listening, because you've said, well, this is nothing to do with business. This is more about just like personality and things like that. At the end of the day, it affects your business. Because if you're a small business owner, what affects you and your personality and your lifestyle will affect the business. If you have 50 or 100 employees or less, everything that happens to you as a leader and a business owner is going to affect the business. And if you're going out and making foolish decisions fiscally and you're spending money on a nice car and an incredibly lavish vacation and country club, when your business is literally starving and is literally needing money for marketing and for growth and for hiring and your team is considering leaving because you're not paying enough and you're not paying more than your competitors, this is an issue that is absolutely plaguing small businesses, is that we constantly are thinking about what other people are thinking and their opinions of us. And a big one, a big one is what are your competitors thinking about you? So many people are afraid of stepping outside the box. I challenge you right now. I challenge you. Think about the competitors in your market, think about your relationships with them, and ask yourselves, is there something you could be doing that could step outside of the box of being normal within your industry? But you're not doing it because you're afraid of what your competitors are going to say. You're afraid because you meet them at the coffee shop or you know them, or maybe you see them at bid sites or maybe all your customers know all of your different competitors in your local market. And you're afraid. You're afraid because it's not normal for a doctor to do X, Y and Z and go out and advertise and do things that are different and get outside their lab coat and actually advertise on Facebook ads. These are things that are going to actually be a massive success story for your business down the road if you are willing to negate the value of opo. People are worried about the opinions of others when it comes to their Standard of living. They think that somehow they have to have some standard of living because they are an entrepreneur, business owner. And unless other people's opinions equate with some sort of level of wealth that they have to somehow personify with a big house and a big car and fancy clothes, somehow they feel that other people's opinions, and that is what affects the business. You take the money out of the business and you put it into the car, you take the money out of the business, you put into the house, you take the money out of the business, you put into fancy clothes, and all of a sudden the business fail.

And I found even when people fail in their business, they will literally hide it for years because they're afraid of opo. They're afraid of other people's opinion of them having to admit failure. And the reason that people hold on to businesses that are failing and they go down with a sinking ship instead of bailing years before is many times they're afraid of opo. They're afraid of what other people are going to think about when they have to declare bankruptcy or when they say, you know what, this is not working. I'm gonna have to pivot and change the business model. And they're afraid that somehow other people's opinions are going to make them a less of a person. And then we wonder why in entrepreneurship and in small business owners, why the rate of suicide is so high in our community is because we're comparing ourselves and we're always so concerned about other people's opinion instead of what is hitting the bottom line. And on the P and L, I'd really encourage you to take a hard look at what is the opo, other people's opinion that's holding you back. Because I truly believe that if it's family, if it's your local community, your friends, the people working with you in your business, literally, that could be what's holding you back, the opinion of those people. And at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it could be opinions of even, like, your health. And people can have opinions about how much you sleep. People are gonna have opinions about everything you do. And guess what? There's 7 billion plus people on this earth and there's gonna be 7 billion different opinions about you for every single aspect of your life.

Like, there's absolutely no way. We wonder why people judge themselves and get depressed and get low and come to these places where that a human being should never have to be in their mind. And they have to come to that place because they're judging themselves based upon other people's opinion. When you have to realize you're the only you and you're gonna run businesses different than me, you're gonna run a business different than your competitor. You're gonna run your business different than your office manager, your spouse or your mother or your father. You're gonna run your business differently. And instead of trying to conform to what everyone else's opinion is for, for your business and for your life, do what's right for you. Only you have to live with yourself 24, 7. Only you know what's right in terms of what you need for your standard of living. Only you know what's right in terms of how much you need to sleep and what your health needs to be in order for you to perform at an optimum level. Should you get advice from a doctor? Absolutely. Should you get advice from your family, friends, counselors, et cetera, spiritual leaders? Absolutely, 100%. But at the end of the day, you know yourself best and I highly encourage you not to. I think that sometimes we get so many opinions of what other people think. This is why I'm kind of against the whole like mentor thing. This has become really a catch phrase. And in my opinion, it's people trying to get money out of other individuals to become their mentor. But at the end of the day, they get so many mentors telling them what to do, they become basically pawns for the opinions of other people. They become popo pawns of other people's opinion. And so.

I really, truly believe that this whole mentorship, and I'm saying this for a reason, because I recently had an issue within our company and an individual, and I feel like their decision was based upon the advice from a mentor, when really their decision wasn't actually going like their long term success, their long term happiness is going to be dictated by the opinion of someone else that thought they should do a certain thing. And so I truly believe that you have to be good. You have to be quote unquote, good with you first. Once you become good with yourself and you become good with living in your own skin and being who you are.

Then you can take other people's opinion and actually synthesize it. Be like, okay, yeah, that's good, that's a good thought. And it's not to say that you block other people's opinion out. It's not that, you know, you're gonna be one minded, thinking you're the best and you're the way to go. That's not what I'M talking about. You can learn, you can bounce ideas off of your opinions and what your kind of your thought mentality and your processing is. However, allowing too many voices into your head and listening to them to the extent that you start changing your lifestyle and changing the way you think is very dangerous when it comes to running a business because all of a sudden you start doing what's normal and average and comfortable. And that is the absolute recipe for business disaster. Because technology is not going to stay the same. Markets and the political climate and economic climate are not going to stay the same. Your hiring and your staff is not going to stay the same. And so if you constantly, if your industry is moving, but yet you're staying within your comfort zone because you don't want to ruffle the feathers of your competitors or you don't know what so and so is going to think if you do something different or outside of the norm. I highly encourage you to stop thinking about other people's opinion and start looking at what your business actually needs you to do. What is your business and your lifestyle and what you want out of life. And your final, your goal, your why, your existence, your mission for living number one and your mission for your business, number two. Let those dictate your decisions and not the opinions of other people because their opinions are not based upon your mission. They don't know what you need to be you. They do not know what you need to become the person that you are. Only you know that they might have. They are with limited, with limited time, seeing you, limited perspective. They are making some judgment call and spewing their opinion, which is fine, take it, bounce it off. There's good things that come out of that. Maybe it's, it's good for you to challenge your thoughts and preconceived notions, but at the end of the day, you live with yourself 247 and you have to live with yourself at night and by yourself. And if you can't do that.

I highly encourage you to not allow other people's opinion to be the thing that depresses you and keeps you comparing yourself to others. It's an absolute road to disaster for you, your life and your business. I know this is a bit of a different episode, but I think it's very critical to stop comparing yourselves to other people. Whether it be work, life, balance, the way you live. You know, people will make judgment calls on how much you should work and how much you should be with your family. At the end of the day, it comes down to you and what you know is gonna make you work best. What is going to allow you to get to the place you want to be. And it takes a lot of communication with the people you love for them to realize that this is who you are. This is why you have to be this way. And the work life balance that everyone is trying to prescribe is not a one size shoe. It's not a one size fits all. You've got to figure it out yourself. Don't allow what other people think to dictate how many hours you work or how much time you spend with your family, because that's the things that everyone's telling me to do. That's what Entrepreneur magazine had in there, that I'm supposed to spend X amount of hours at the office and then go home. I highly encourage you to stop taking OPO as your gospel and begin to make sure you in yourself are fulfilled and working towards a mission that's better, bigger than yourself. And I promise you, when you start to do that, you look at other people's opinion as great feedback, as something that you can bounce ideas off of, something that challenges your preconceived notions. But it's not going to be the thing that dictates your life and it will not dictate your business nor the decisions you make as an entrepreneur. You've been listening to Mike Andes on the Business Bootcamp podcast. I'll see you next time. Until next time, be great, because nothing else pays.